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From Labor Action, Vol. 14 No. 17, 24 April 1950, p. 5.
Transcribed & marked up by Einde O’Callaghan for the Encyclopaedia of Trotskyism On-Line (ETOL).
On February 17 at Rockville Centre, Long Island, thirty-two people lost their lives in a wreck on the Long Island Railroad. Jacob Kiefer, locomotive engineer, was indicted for second degree manslaughter. He awaits trial while out on $10,000 bail.
This Long Island tragedy hit the front page again last week when Robert Moses saw fit, as president of the Long Island State Park Commission, to issue a statement. In no uncertain terms he placed the responsibility for the fatal accident on the railroad, the State Department of Public Works and the State Public Service Commission.
Moses declared that this tragedy need never have happened if sufficient land had been bought for two passing tracks. By spending an additional $150,000 – a small amount considering the overall outlay of $5 million expended for the construction – land could have been acquired for two tracks in the place of the single “gantlet” track where the collision occurred.
“The purchase of such land never seemed to have been seriously considered by any of these agencies – the Public Service Commission, the State Department of Public Works and the railroad,” he stated.
“Certainly this railroad engineer, who seems to have had some temporary aberration or momentary lapse, cannot be held criminally responsible for the failure of all these bickering officials and of the railroad to spend a little additional money. His conviction will not bring back any of the dead, mend any injured, or bring relief to their families.
“In such cases where there is a terrible loss of life, the disposition is always to look for a victim or scapegoat, and the attempt is always made to marshal public opinion against some one individual to obscure the fundamental responsibility of officials.”
How familiar, how true and how often repeated is this pattern! Furthermore, this scapegoat technique is used not only to cover up the pinchpenny greed of capitalist owners of railroads and industries, but by shifting responsibility to an innocent victim of their greed, to save themselves hard cash demanded of them in damage suits. Incidentally, how can one refrain from commenting that the rulers in the Kremlin are masters of the scapegoat technique?
It is hoped that this attempt to frame an innocent worker will be defeated. Moses will doubtless be asked to testify at the trial. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers, of which the accused Kiefer is a member, is of course interested in the defense.
The outcome of the trial should be an expose of the scandalous and criminal effects of the private-profit motive. In this small segment it caused the needless death of thirty-two people – to save a railroad $150,000. The legal proceedings should also show how the profit motive poisons the minds of so-called public agencies like the Public Service Commission and the State Department of Public Works, so that they serve the private interests.
However, even if the railroad’s attempt at frameup should be defeated and the trial should result in a resounding condemnation of the railroad and the public agencies involved, is this enough in this day and age? There have been exposes before. What’s the answer? What’s the remedy? Another law on the books? But there are already enough laws on the books that are vitiated by the power of private interests.
Because the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers is so closely involved through its member, Jacob Kiefer, because today a union is looked to not only to give power to its members but a certain leadership in social problems, the Long Island catastrophe offers this union an opportunity to carry the thinking of people a step forward.
Why do not the locomotive engineers on the railroads have anything to say about whether or not $150,000 should be spent for a safer two-track system instead of the treacherous single “gantlet” makeshift? They risk their lives on the job, and they have on their souls the safe carriage of thousands of passengers." Would these railroad workers have valued $150,000 above human life? And why have not the people who ride the railroads something to say about whether tracks should be laid with the least or the utmost safety provision? They daily put their lives in the care of railroad owners who obviously have no concern for them.
In a word, the question of workers’ control in industry and in transportation is unmistakably an issue – workers’ control with participation by consumers and users. The question of socialization of transportation and of basic industry will one day be decided by the people of this country. However, basic to an economy that will supply needs in plenty and services in safety, is the democratic procedure of workers’ control.
This all-important issue has been raised by the tragedy at Rockville Centre, Long Island. The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers would do the whole working class and the mass of people a tremendous service if it faced this issue squarely at the trial of Jacob Kiefer, scapegoat for the railroad owners.
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Last updated: 12 January 2024